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November 13, 2020
President Trump achieved a small but significant victory in Pennsylvania
By Andrea Widburg
Early in October, United States Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh drew a line in the sand, stating that the power to set voting rules within a state rests solely with the state’s Legislature. This means that judges, politicians, and bureaucrats cannot unilaterally alter those rules. On Thursday, Kavanaugh’s statement may have borne fruit, for a Pennsylvania judge held that secretary of state Kathy Boockvar could not authorize 10,000 votes when the voters’ identities were not confirmed.
Back in October, in Andino v. Middleton , the Supreme Court was asked to determine whether a federal district court could use the Wuhan virus as an excuse to change South Carolina election laws. The pre-Barrett, eight-member Court unilaterally, and with minimal comment, reversed the district court’s ruling.
Justice Kavanaugh used the decision to send out a warning to judges across America. He reminded them that the states’ legislatures, which are “politically accountable,” have the sole responsibility for changing election laws, even when there is a pandemic:
Ultimately, he said, district courts lack the appropriate accountability to second-guess the Legislature. Therefore, as elections draw near, district courts should not interfere with state election laws . . .It follows that a State legislature’s decision either to keep or to make changes to election rules to address COVID–19 ordinarily “should not be subject to second-guessing by an ‘unelected federal judiciary,’ which lacks the background, competence, and expertise to assess public health and is not accountable to the people.”